Into the draw bag and with the odds 2-1 against drawing lake 3, I was not in the least surprised to see peg 41 (lake 3) written on the swimcard like a cruel taunt. Peg 41 is an end/corner which has produced decent weights, but in my experience lately, the bigger fish seem to have migrated to the middle of the lake, leaving the ends for the smaller fish that were introduced from lake 4 and Mike's homebred stocking programme.
Well, it was a day on the bank after working a lot lately, so I set about the peg in a positive manner, this lake is a non starter when it comes to competing in the silvers, so my side tray had 6 and 8mm hard pellets on it, along with a bag of paste. I set up a shallow and a depth rig to fish at 14m out to the aerator, where there were some signs of fish, a paste rig to fish the edge (and it would do for anywhere else in the peg, as the margin was 6" shallower than the rest of the peg) and a rig to fish at the bottom of the shelf of the spit, which is like having an island. I also had a couple of pints of dead maggots and groundbait, with me, but the depth of the margin stopped me mixing it up.
Starting shallow at 14m in the open water, my first two fish were a 5oz rudd and a 2oz roach, both on 6mm pellet, before a small carp was safely netted. Mike Duckett appeared with the scales and put them behind my peg, (gee, thanks Mike), he stayed for a chat, telling me about his plans for lake 4 and that pleasure anglers had been catching on paste. Whilst he was there a couple of better fish were cruising about and I mugged one about 5lb, that turned out to be my best fish of the day!! The fish soon backed off to the other side of the rope, where John Bradford on peg 70 was fishing short, giving the shallow fish an area of sanctuary where they sat all day.
Mike Nicholls had walked up before the start and showed me where he had 160lb on paste from, but this short margin only produced 4 fish all day. The most productive area of the swim was tight across to the spit, but it was tricky, as the rig set up to fish at the bottom of the shelf was producing plenty of liners and the odd lost fouler, to one proper bite. I set up a shallow rig to fish between 6" and 12" deep, but it was difficult to get the pellet in where the fish were, as the bank is undercut, so a straight lowering of the rig tight to the bank, (even after a walk round there to clear all vegetation in the way) meant that the pellet wasn't tight to the bank under water. Flicking it into the under cut wasn't effective, the presentation was wrong, as it came away from the bank as it fell.
A frustrating day, I had more fish than those who beat me on the lake, but my fish were an average stamp of 2lb, where as the pegs in the middle of the lake, as true to recent forum, had the bigger fish (double figures). I cannot think of a way to overcome that, but I probably should have worked out a way to improve my catch rate from the spit, as I could see some fish with their noses into the undercut, feeding, but they wouldn't take a pellet 6" out from it. I put 49.15 on the scales, which beat the next two pegs to my left, before the big fish put in an appearance. Match lake and Speci filled the top 4 places and the silvers, matching my prediction, will I ever get off that bloody lake 3???
Weigh sheet from lake 3.
PS. Thanks to Gordon Cannings and John Bradford who took over the scales duties, as I had to get off sharpish and get to Worcester for a nightshift........ looks like it might be 20th July before work commitments see me on the bank again.
Overall:
- Paul Elmes 155-10-0 peg 27
- Shaun Townsend 131-14-0 peg 9
- Martin Rayett 123-10-0 peg 38
- Tom Mangnall 99-13-0 peg 33
- Bob Gullick 98-07-0 peg 50
- Neil Mercer 95-11-0 peg 36
Top Silvers:
- Paul Faiers 32-0-0 peg 32
- Neil Mercer 30-0-0 peg 36
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